YOUTH AND JOB PLACEMENT

by Sveta Mashkova

[Editor: This is an excerpt from an article written in the late 1990's by one of the young staff reporters of "Girls Request Your Attention" for the magazine's readers in Naberezhnye Chelny]

The problem of job placement for young people is at the moment one of the most acute social problems, explained by the fact that first of all most families doenot have sufficient means for a prestigious education for their children, which in most cases means a paid one. But even many graduates of higher education can’t find work for themselves.

This situation arose in our country relatively recently. Only ten years ago the government had the responsibility of assigning graduates to various branches of the economy. Young people headed for different regions of the country, where they often settled for the rest of their lives. Thus there was an automatic distribution of graduates from colleges, technical institutes and so on. Now things are much more difficult. In light of the new economic conditions the majority of enterprises have ceased to exist and those still afloat are reducing their number of workers, for example, OAO KAMAZ. [the huge truck plant in Naberezhnye Chelny which onceemployed some 130,000 workers]. But even those organizations that are still hiring require not less than five years of work experience, which of course a recent graduate cannot satisfy. For this reason practically all paths leading to a job turnout to be closed off. In light of this a growing number of youths are registered at the Center for employment .

With the goal of analyzing the problem of employment for young people, a sociological investigation was conducted in April 1997 in a government institute, a “study of factors affecting the employment of youth.” Those studied were youth who had been trained as "tailors" -- graduates in 1994 and 1995 of professional-technical college #47.

First of all, we note that not all of the graduates studying to be tailors would actually want to be employed in sewing in the future. Only 47% of the participants deliberately chose this specialization, the rest did not seriously contemplate their choice. As a result, at the end of college only 79% of the graduates were really sure that they wanted to work within their specialization.

Upon finishing their studies, almost all the pupils went to the bureau for youth employment. At the same time, all those questioned also tried to find work independently through friends and acquaintances, but in the majority of instances, these searches did not yield substantial results.

The basic reasons why they were unsuccessful:

1) Lack of experience and skills for the job - 67%.

2) Insufficient level of qualifications - 17%.

3) Low level of salary - 10%.

4) Lack of demand at businesses - 5%.

5) Undesirable work schedule - 1%.

Thus it is evident that the main obstacle for graduates in attaining a job is the lack of experience and appropriate qualifications.

It turned out that practically all businesses at which the girls applied for work operated according to the following policy: work by contract, that is wages accrue only for time worked, without pay for holidays, sick days and so on. Several women agreed to these conditions so as not to be without work and to gain some experience.

All in all 23% of the girls found work in their field, 10% found work outside their field, and 67% remained unemployed.

The results of this study are unsettling, as only 1/3 of the graduates found work and not even in their field at that. The remaining 2/3 remained “overboard” as they say, and it's the same with students in other professions, even those considered prestigious at the moment (management, psychology, economy and others). What can be done to improve the situation so that in the future we do not find ourselves lacking educated specialists?

Above all it is imperative that employers not ignore young people, that they hire them (even if only with a trial period at first), and not close their ears to new ideas and projects which are often conceived in the heads of young specialists. It mustn’t be forgotten that a new generation is growing, which will become the main buttress of our country in the near future. ...